Bishal Bhattarai

When one of the teenage girls, though officially she was a bona fide candidate to opt for foreign employment, was asked whether she knew that going to a foreign country as a domestic maid would land her in immeasurable sufferings, she replied rather candidly that her life here was not pleasant either. This sums up the whole scenario of Nepali socio-economic progress and the state of foreign employment. Nepali foreign employment sector is marred with plenty of cases of fraudulent activities.

Worst of all, the aspiring migrant workers are mainly from the lower- or lower middle-class. Excessive charges, false contract papers, low salary, and excessive presence of unauthorized agents working as brokers and misuse of visit visa are some of the main problems in this sector.

Moreover, the so called "setting system" has further aggravated the problem giving it a shape of illegal human trafficking and smuggling. The pang of this problem has been felt by all the concerned people; however, its remedy still seems to be elusive. Though the government receives unnecessary flak most of the times, it cannot be completely exonerated either.

Recent directives from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and the formation of a committee under the convenership of the former planning commission member should be looked upon in this perspective. There is nothing new in all these acts. Everybody is aware of the problems as well as appropriate solutions to them. We have had plenty of seminars, meetings, reports, and visits in this regard in the past but those have hardly changed anything.

We all talk of the importance of remittances to the national economy. However, the very people who have been keeping our economy afloat are treated inhumanely right from the beginning. Now, it is a well-known fact that generally the people who are toiling hard in the extreme heat of the Gulf countries are making us smile in comparison to those who are trying their luck in Europe, America and Australia. The prevailing trend shows that in most of the cases these people better prefer to stay in these countries and contribute less to the national economy unlike the migrant workers in the Gulf countries.

Remittances have scaled up almost to one quarter of the gross domestic production only behind the agriculture sector. But state priority in this sector has not moved beyond lip service. The allocation of budget for the Labor Ministry is a paltry minimum in comparison to what it contributes to the economy. Official data shows that on an average 1,000 people leave the country daily. Sadly, the manpower to manage them is just around 60 leading to a chaotic situation in the Foreign Employment Department. Moreover, the same department has to monitor around 1,000 manpower companies.

Official data shows that on an average 1,000 people leave the country daily. Sadly, the manpower to manage them is just around 60 leading to a chaotic situation in the Foreign Employment Department.

Additionally, the number of legal cases lodged in the department has been piling up and the number of legal experts to handle them is limited to just one or two. The state of orientation training is more pathetic though the number of these training institutions has been flourishing. The quality of the instructor has been under scrutiny since long. The introduction of this training system has been done with a pious motive; however its efficacy has been degenerated into an official requirement only. The monitoring mechanism is so weak that nothing concrete has been achieved yet.

No wonder why foreign employment is not considered a permanent solution to our ailing economy. But, right now, we do not have other viable solutions either. The volume of exports is dwindling in comparison to ever increasing imports. Our export income is not even able to pay the bill of import of petroleum products. Agriculture sector, which contributes around 32 percent of gross domestic product, still depends on monsoon. The contribution of industrial sector to the economy has been on a constant decline. The state of foreign direct investment is miserable with ever increasing cases of labor unrest and political instability compounded with poor law and order situation in the country.

To add salt to the injury, we are undergoing the twin pang of load shedding and flow shedding. The dream of Nepal becoming a transit country of the two growing economic giants – China and India – and reaping benefits from it has turned out to be a mirage in the present context.

The essence of the argument is that we lack productive and dignified employment opportunities in the country, hence the outflow of migrant workers is a natural outcome of this whether we like it or not. In recent times, the number of outbound laborers has increased in such a proportion that it has completely changed the demographic make-up of the country. The result of the just concluded census, which shows that the population growth rate has declined to 1.4 percent, should act as a wake-up call to all concerned stakeholders. It is alarming in the sense that more than 3 million Nepalis are working in those destinations where the government of Nepal does not have any policy influence. Hence, in the time of crisis, these migrant workers are bound to suffer with excessive pressure on the government of Nepal.

In recent times, the state has taken various steps to systematize the foreign employment sector right from the amendment of the foreign employment act to the decentralization of the department authority to the local level to check the cases of fraudulent activities. However, the need of the hour is to implement what has been promised with a well-functioning mechanism of monitoring and coordination among the major stakeholders.

Change in attitude and value system is a must to acknowledge the contribution of these migrant workers and make their life easier in both the home and destination countries. In the meantime, efforts must be directed to make foreign employment a matter of choice rather than compulsion as it was for the teenage girl headed to a foreign destination as a domestic help.

Published on: 19 October 2011 | Republica